In the mid-90s, Canal Street was the flamboyant heart of Manchester’s gay scene. Home to the city’s queer party lovers, Canal Street existed outside Manchester’s world-famous club scene, until, that is, 1999, when the characters of Russell T Davies’ Queer as Folk swaggered onto TV screens and kicked open the doors of queer nightlife to wide-eyed viewers across the nation.

This is the subject of director Stephen Isaac-Wilson’s latest documentary Fleshback: Queer Raving in Manchester’s Twilight Zone, released on independent music platform Boiler Room’s new video content platform 4:3 to mark the 30th anniversary since the enactment of Section 28. As the film’s title suggests, Fleshback tells the story of the collectives who spearheaded Manchester’s queer rave scenes, weaving archival footage together with interviews to take a nostalgic look back at a scene which has not received widespread recognition.

“There have been so many films, books, articles on the effect of the Hacienda, but far less when you intersect queerness,” Stephen explains. “It was an idea I went to Boiler Room with late last year. I came across an article about a night called Homoelectric, run by Luke Unabomber. The party had an ‘anything goes’ nature, and had been going for 20 years, so I was instantly drawn to the idea of exploring how this night, in his words, was helping instigate a queer rave renaissance and also using it as an opportunity to delve into the past social and political queer history of the city. With Boiler Room, we developed the idea to focus on a wider group of queer collectives, and a movement that saw raves moving to Salford and the edges of Manchester city centre.”

As Fleshback makes clear, the collectives may have trodden the same cobbled streets, but their opinions to what queer nightlife should be were as varied as the night’s dress codes. “In many ways [the collectives were] ideologically similar in ethos,” Stephen says. “With practically identical political backdrops, the collectives past and present both centre ideas of euphoria and escapism. They all run nights for music-loving misfits. However, door policies differ slightly. Due to the popularity of Flesh in the 90s, admission for straight ravers was much harder, and at times impossible, whilst current nights Meat Free and High Hoops run LGBT raves that they want to be accessible for everybody.”

Section 28 was instrumental in merging the queer community with the city’s mainstream nightlife. “When researching and talking to contributors, we learnt about the significance of the No1 Club and Flesh, queer nights in the early 90s that did not segregate men and women,” Stephen says. “After the enactment of Section 28 in 1988, our contributors talk about a sense of togetherness in club spaces, and I thought that was an important sentiment to highlight through archive footage.”

In recent years, grainy footage capturing pilled up ravers dancing in fields somewhere in the Home Counties has been referenced heavily by UK filmmakers, but queer rave culture has been left behind. “There would be a number of reasons I suppose; the most obvious one would be that queer history is so easily and often forgotten,” Stephen muses. “A lot of the basis of our research came from the amazing digital archive curated by Abigail Ward called Queer Noise. I learnt so much from it — everyone should check it out. It’s wonderful. I also feel the present day collectives featured in the film have never courted the press, which makes their parties feel a little more sacred. There’s a real sense of authenticity to their nights and what they’re trying to do.”

More like this:

Catherine Hyland’s latest film is one of juxtaposition – of expectation and reality, of the weather, of the new and the old – but it is also one of camaraderie and friendship; a tale of a young group of Mongolians who are participants in an unlikely yet thriving sumo wrestling scene. Rise of the Mongolians and its accompanying photo series, commissioned by WePresent, is a revelatory and touching portrayal of a fascinating story.

Unlike most creatives for whom concepts chop and change but means of communication often stay the same, London-based visual artist Rhea Dillon chooses her medium after she has solidified an idea. “I could write a poem that actually evolves into a film or a photography series that then acts as research for a future piece,” she tells It’s Nice That. Whether it’s photography, film, casting or even writing, Rhea’s holistic approach to creativity stems from a love of storytelling; uncovering pertinent, personal and collective narratives.

Steve McQueen’s recently-released Widows is a late contender for the film of the year. A taut, stylish heist movie, it’s one of those rare pictures which sits as happily in a multiplex as it does the independent arthouse venue you know you should frequent a little more than you actually do.

The director Greg Barth is known for his live action videos full of animated colours and crisp visual content. From adverts for MailChimp about a black hole, to surreal self-initiated films, Greg’s director’s vision is candidly punchy and rich with expressive narratives. His latest endeavour releases today and involves the music video for the up-and-coming band Easy Life. The track, titled Nightmares, debuted on Jools Holland last month and shortly after, Greg agreed to direct the music video in his personal aesthetic approach.

Palestine Underground is a 25 minute documentary released by Boiler Room today. The film documents the flourishing underground music scene in Occupied Palestinian Territory, the West Bank. Shot last June, the film follows alternative Palestinian music collectives, including techno DJs, hip-hop producers and rappers, over a week in the lead up to Boiler Room’s first party in Ramallah.

The Palestinian artists are blossoming in their creativity despite enforced constraints from the Israeli government; and although their movements are restricted and there is a midnight curfew, the Palestinian music scene refuses to dwindle, as seen in the film’s interviewees, who are brimming with musical passion and freedom of expression.

Produced by Boiler Room’s Anaïs Brémond and directed by BBC and Channel 4 documentary filmmaker Jess Kelly, Palestine Underground “connects the dots between club culture and cinema to stretch the boundaries of what a film experience can be”, recording a musical subculture that is little known in the West. The director Jess tells It’s Nice That that “this was exactly the kind of project I was looking for.” The filmmaker and journalist explains: “I’d been doing a lot of current affairs documentaries and I was keen to make a film where I could have more artistic freedom and the scenes breathe.”

Jess is a freelance documentary maker who made a career in filmmaking after studying Arabic at university. “Documentaries are a good way of mixing the language with my interest in what’s going on in the Middle East as well as visual creativity”, says Jess. Having made numerous films in the Arab-speaking world, Palestine Underground continues the director’s legacy of “challenging the stereotypes that we have in the West about this part of the world.”

The film seamlessly represents differing depictions of the complex environment of the West Bank. The unlawful Israeli raids are intertwined with segments of the booming music scene to accurately convey the disturbing sociopolitical tones that the West Bank’s artists endure. Of the filming process, Jess explains, “I’ve filmed in the West Bank and Gaza so it wasn’t a big shock, but the reality of that separation wall and the heavy Israeli military prescience is not something you could ever get used to.” For Jess and the rest of the production crew, one of the most significant scenes that was essential to execute accurately, is the road trip scene with Jazr crew from Haifa to the West Bank. “As Palestinians with Israeli passports, they have the privilege of being able to travel freely from Israel into the West Bank, but people in the West Bank can’t do the reverse. To even leave the West Bank they have to apply to the Israeli authorities for a permit, and it’s often denied”, the director explains. “It was really important to me to capture their mood during that trip, which was a mix of excitement and anger or unease at the fact that they have to cross that separation wall to get to their friends. It makes them feel like outsiders.”

From our privileged, European positions in front of the TV, we are presented with a media angle that focuses on Palestine’s destroyed areas of Gaza. However Jess describes the West Bank as “incredibly beautiful and peaceful.” The discovery of the music scene immediately evoked the “tight knit community of people” that are a part of Ramallah’s music scene, “and as a Londoner, I really envy that”.

Members of the production team spent a year getting to know some of the artists online before going out to the West Bank as a lot of the musicians are rightfully suspicious of the Western media misrepresenting the complicated political situation. The level of trust between the film crew and the artists is evident, particularly in the opening scene where the DJ Oddz jumps the separation wall into Israel. The intimate footage throughout the film similarly interweaves between the devotion to music and the brutal political tensions demonstrated by the handheld camera footage of Oddz crossing the wall. While going over it, he says: “you can’t build a wall and say you can’t go and do this, it’s music, it’s a right for everyone”. For Jess, this quote and the physical action of crossing the wall “sums it up”. The artists risk their lives for their right to musical expression.

Although Palestinian musicians face multiple restrictions on a daily basis which “rile up” Jess and the rest of the production team; it induces inspiration for what these artists have achieved and their musical talents. Finally, when asked about the future for the communities in the West Bank, Jess adds: “sadly, I don’t think the future looks bright in terms of the political situation for people in the West Bank, especially now under the Trump administration. But there’s still a lot we can do as individuals. One of the best things we can do is visit the West Bank. It’s not a ‘danger zone’ like the Israeli authorities refer to, it’s a beautiful place to visit. There’s an incredible underground music scene to discover, too.”

Zhong Xian has extended her stylish illustration practice featuring long and beautifully languid characters into an animation for the Korean pop artist Kona’s latest music video Love it. Using pencil, acrylic and pastel processed through an old-school animation software called Ulead, Zhong’s animation “encourages people to show their love.” The illustrator discusses her animation process with It’s Nice That, which attempted communicated the musician’s belief that “showing your love is more important than loving somebody inside your heart.” Zhong linked this idea to one of her illustrations A Way to My Heart to develop a story about love.

Catherine Hyland’s latest film is one of juxtaposition – of expectation and reality, of the weather, of the new and the old – but it is also one of camaraderie and friendship; a tale of a young group of Mongolians who are participants in an unlikely yet thriving sumo wrestling scene. Rise of the Mongolians and its accompanying photo series, commissioned by WePresent, is a revelatory and touching portrayal of a fascinating story.

Published by Loose Joints, Robin Friend’s Bastard Countryside is the photographer’s first book and it collects together 15 years worth of exploration of the British landscape, or what Victor Hugo called “the bastard countryside”. “Each photograph represents a small part of the story of how modern living is changing the environment”, says Robin. And although the series has been photographed in the UK, “the subjects and themes are global, and invite the viewer to reflect on the actions that have shaped and shifted the spaces they relate to”.

Since we last wrote about María Medem’s illustration practice last year, her work has progressed in leaps and bounds. The texture is more enriched and the expressiveness of the characters has deepened. She has also expanded her clientele which now includes commissions for publications such as Medium, the New York Times, as well as Wired and Anxy magazine.

We have no doubt that readers pick up a copy of The New York Times and often dive through the paper to get straight to its magazine. But 15 times a year, this dash for the glossier pages that reside within the newsprint becomes quicker than ever, when The New York Times Magazine releases one of its special-themed issues. Christmas came early for design heads and technology-smitten readers last week as the magazine released its design and tech issue discussing the theme of “Humans of the Future”.

A minimalist newspaper reporting on the trends of graphic, and specifically poster, design is perhaps the most Swiss publication It’s Nice That has ever come across. Published periodically, the ode to all things typographic and grid-based, Poster Tribune was started in 2011 by Thuy-An Hoang and Xavier Erni and this year, received an update to its design by Dennis Moya.

Joakim Haugland’s never understood what people mean when they say you should never judge a book by it’s cover. For the past 25 years, Joakim’s been responsible for releasing some of the best looking – and sounding – albums around through his much-loved, Oslo-based imprint Smalltown Supersound.

The Singapore Graphic Archive is a visual treat for any design enthusiast. Founded in 2011 by Justin Zhuang, the archive is a treasure trove of vintage Singaporean design created before the 2000s. The entire archive, in its web and Instagram form, is solely down to Justin’s interest in his country’s design history.

Each month we invite creatives from across the world to invent creative briefs which everyone, no matter your talents, can get involved in. At the end of the week, the best of the bunch are featured right here on It’s Nice That.

Luo Yang is a photographer living and working between Shanghai and Beijing capturing the lives of Chinese girls in their own private spaces or in places they feel comfortable. Here at It’s Nice That, it is a rare to hear a comment like, “I don’t know Western girl culture very well” from a female creative. In turn, Luo Yang’s photography offers a refreshing perspective of the lives of young women on the other side of the world.

The story of the T-shirt is forever entwined with one Thomas Arthur Hill, the 11th child of a Victorian hosiery maker. In 1860, Thomas founded Sunspel. Back then, they were at the forefront of a steam-powered industrial revolution, producing luxury undergarments and some of the world’s first T-shirts out of their factory in Nottingham. Ever since, Sunspel has been a byword for a very British kind of luxury.

LogoArchive is a publication founded on an enthusiasm for well-crafted, mid-century graphic symbols and form language — form language being the non-verbal, pictorial way of communicating. Founded by freelance graphic designer Richard Baird, the document has multiple intentions that involve building a story around these symbols and generating ideas. Now in its third issue, LogoArchive’s design and content has developed as a physical response to the Instagram account of the same name, @LogoArchive. The Instagram archive studies the form of language through logo design, documenting a “recovery, research and restoration project”.

“I think when you’re just starting exploring a new medium, (in my case, fiction) collaboration can feel like this safe, cosy place to start,” says LA-based writer and editor Nada Alic. For the past few years Nada has been working with her friend, the animator Andrea Nakhla, on Future You a collection of short fiction and original artwork which explores the internal landscape of six different characters who are really trying to get this whole life thing right.

For New York-born Ingo Raschka, the occupation of being a freelance animator brings up a lot of questions. After graduating from California’s Institute of Arts last year, Ingo’s been working as a freelance animator based in Los Angeles, although he admits, “I don’t really know what I am doing since I don’t have a car or a drivers licence”. What Ingo does have is a number of supportive peers, animators too, who share his “passion for making animation and enjoy the confusion and precocity of life as an independent artist”.

In our memories, the summer holidays of our youth often stretch out far longer than the allotted six weeks before term inevitably starts again. The sun never quite sets and there’s always more fun to be had in that apparently infinite time-off, and it’s in this heady space that photography duo Lola & Pani AKA Lola Paprocka and Pani Paul’s most recent series exists.

For Japanese illustrator Ken Kagami, a fascination with Bart Simpson began “largely because I realised that this would be a very easy form to draw,” he tells It’s Nice That. That was 15 years ago and Ken’s love for Homer and Marge’s son has never drifted far from his heart or artistic practice. First releasing Bart Works in 2015, Ken has returned to his muse for Bart Works 2, a book comprising solely of multiple, slightly mad drawings of El Barto.

“My personal work is often just a series of mistakes, losing pens, creasing paper, drawing a hand wrong, that sort of stuff”, explains the illustrator Harry Wyld. With a practice focused on artfully-smudged drawings, Harry’s main intention is to create obscure images that people can find a personal connection to. His illustrations directly reference their hand-drawn medium, traces of ink and graphite are purposely left on the page to create a comforting sense of imperfection. Not all illustration these days is digitally edited to perfection and Harry’s drawings are a testament to the beauty of flaw.

Prague-based graphic designer Kristyna Kulíková’s work is distinctive, to say the least. Full of maximalist visuals, it combines heavy metal and Yu-Gi-Oh!-inspired typography with 3D-rendered, hyperreal objects and bold colours in a full-on aesthetic.

As an industry, graphic design is extremely susceptive to trends. At It’s Nice That, we naturally evaluate the comings and goings of in vogue iconographies; recording the waves of progression across the industry as time goes by. Meanwhile, on the other side of the UK in Glasgow, Graphic Design Festival Scotland (GDFS) similarly sees the visual trends of the year through its annual international poster exhibition. The current edition, now showing at The Lighthouse until 6 January 2019, showcases some of the best contemporary poster design from around the world, and can also be seen in the GDFS International Poster Book 2018.

For Pa-i-ka, a graphic design studio based in Seoul, the act of designing revolves around tapping into certain themes. Noting “culture, art and social attention” as its driving forces, Pa-i-ka embeds itself within these topics, working with cultural institutions and for various exhibitions too. This process of working has led the studio to think of “design as another voice,” to artistic conversations that are already happening.

Sometimes, the means by which a creative chooses to communicate their work can be as powerful or significant as the work itself. A simple or subtle decision can elevate a project from interesting to captivating, embodying a concept in a French fold or an exaggerated leading. Brazilian-born Mico Toledo’s – a creative director a Wieden + Kennedy London – recent personal project Velho Chico is one of those projects.

“Chinese character design systems are totally different to Western character design systems because we have such a large number of characters”, says graphic designer, Mak Kai Hang. In Chinese typography, “each character has a unique personality” resulting in tens of thousands of logograms, though most of them are minor graphic variations exclusively seen in historical texts. The written language is the oldest, continuously used system of writing in the world dating back to the second millennium BC, and presents wholly different design challenges for those designing for a Chinese demographic.

Unlike most creatives for whom concepts chop and change but means of communication often stay the same, London-based visual artist Rhea Dillon chooses her medium after she has solidified an idea. “I could write a poem that actually evolves into a film or a photography series that then acts as research for a future piece,” she tells It’s Nice That. Whether it’s photography, film, casting or even writing, Rhea’s holistic approach to creativity stems from a love of storytelling; uncovering pertinent, personal and collective narratives.

The art of animation, with its infinite possibilities of visual expression, has become a go-to medium for exploring difficult subjects. An example of this approach is Ooze, a newly released short which narrates the loneliness the director felt while working as an elevator boy at a nightclub in Hamburg. Kilian Vilim, Ooze’s director explains how his previous job led to “a mental breakdown where I knew I had to make some changes,” the animator tells It’s Nice That. “I decided to follow my inner wish to study animation and use the storyline of the elevator boy to draw a line between myself and the past.”

Steve McQueen’s recently-released Widows is a late contender for the film of the year. A taut, stylish heist movie, it’s one of those rare pictures which sits as happily in a multiplex as it does the independent arthouse venue you know you should frequent a little more than you actually do.

Park is a name most in the independent publishing world will already know well. The London-based printer is behind many beloved independent magazine titles and helps transform a publication into a tactile object readers want to reach out and touch.

David Lane is an art director known for multiple magazine titles such as Freize and The Gourmand which he co-founded. But other than these publications taking up David’s time, his studio Lane & Associates also looks after the art direction (which even he admits “is a broad term”) for advertising campaigns from high fashion brands to musicians too. David Lane is very busy.

A few weeks back, London-based creative agency The Beautiful Meme got in contact asking if its team could make us a Friday Mixtape. We said yes and expected the usual pumped-up, deck-building bangers focused mixtape we often hear – and love – from graphic design-leaning studios. The Beautiful Meme’s mixtape instead begins with Shakira’s timeless hit Wherever, Whenever, ends with Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head, and Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles makes a surprise appearance too.

We use cookies on this website to analyse your use of our products and services, provide content from third parties and assist with our marketing efforts. Learn more about our use of cookies and available controls: cookie policy. Please be aware that your experience may be disrupted until you accept cookies.